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Crysis Warhead: Deja Vu All Over Again

If you want to play more Crysis levels without having to deal with all the cost of fresh-feeling content, you're in luck.
Where to start? After thirty minutes of playing Crysis Warhead, I saw a couple new guns, some new particle effects, and a

If you want to play more Crysis levels without having to deal with all the cost of fresh-feeling content, you're in luck.

Where to start? After thirty minutes of playing Crysis Warhead, I saw a couple new guns, some new particle effects, and a new mission. A mission that, outside of a dull scripted vehicle sequence, could have passed as content from the original Crysis.

Don't get me wrong: I very much enjoyed the original Crysis, and the stand-alone Warhead's $29.99 price point keeps the lack of new features from being insulting. Apparently Warhead will include a larger variety of enemies than Crysis, though I saw only the same standard soldiers while playing it. And it will supposedly be better optimized, so a few more of you might be able to run it. There will also be some new multiplayer maps, and a couple new modes.

Did I mention those explosion effects already?

I can at least confirm that there will be no new suit powers introduced in Warhead. Why? As the game puts you in the shoes of Psycho, the team member first introduced in Crysis, it wouldn't fit with continuity.

Warhead takes place during the events of the first game, so continuity-wise, the similar setting and enemies also fit. But excusing that, the mission itself offered little in terms of new gameplay elements. Driving down a road, I had to shoot up a number of other vehicles and soldiers while following another APC. They exploded, and I infiltrated a compound, placing a charge inside a green trailer. Nothing I haven't done in Crysis a dozen times already.

I did get my hands on a few of the new weapons. Dual submachineguns were mildly
amusing to play around with, and the grenade launcher made for a decent demo of those particle effects. Neither are anything we haven't seen in a hundred other games, though.

At the end of the day, whether or not this game has a place on your shelf will likely be based on how much you enjoyed the original game. Crysis Warhead is looking very much like more of the same.